I’m fairly certain this story will become more of the rule than the exception going forward. When a kid is told from sixth grade on that he is the greatest football player to ever live and his identity as a person is based on his being the best football player, he will refuse to accept the reality that he is not the best football player when he is forced to compete with other elite athletes. Most four and five star players are usually the best player on the field for either team for their entire pre college football careers. Unless they go to an IMG type academy where other elite players gather, they will probably never face another player with their ability for their entire middle and high school playing careers.

The transfer portal gives these kids the perfect tool to avoid facing the reality that they are not, in fact, the greatest football player at their position of their time.

I have to admit it is enjoyable to see underdogs defeat those who ran from competition elsewhere rather than stay and fight for the job. Not saying Martell and Fields don’t eventually succeed (who knows?), but if both lose out because of non-injury related issues it might serve as examples for those inclined to always look for the greener shade of grass. My exception to this is graduate transfers who have fought the good fight and see too little time to prevail. Martell, seems to be a real head case at this point.

It’s pretty obvious that there is an established, excellent QB at Georgia that has had success and is only likely to get better. It was a realistic assessment for Fields to see he wasn’t going to start and that his career at UGA would largely hinge on whether or not Fromm decided to leave school early or play out his eligibility. I also see Eason the same way, he didn’t really do anything wrong other than get injured. It’s more akin to Jimmy Garoppolo leaving the Patriots for a starting job rather than sitting around hoping TB12 would retire.

Martell, however, left an open QB competition between himself and an unproven transfer.

I lumped them together because they both had made commitments and chose to leave due to not being willing to fight for the opportunity to overcome competition. Martell, may, or may not, be contemplating doing this twice (after running his mouth to Fields in social media.) Yeah, I hope they both get beat out in their safe, happy place of choice.

I hate losing to Bama as much as anyone, but, for anyone who isn’t a Dawgs fan, the Jalen-Hurts-comeback-making-Saban-cry story is primo college football. Dude showed a ton of character, especially with his dad pressuring him to transfer, and now he’s getting a real chance to make it into the NFL by learning from the best offensive mind in the game. I wish it wasn’t at our expense, but those are the stories that make this game special.

“I don’t really care. I want to find some guys that are all for the U. Guess why? Because that’s how Miami won in the past. And I don’t care what guys are ranked in recruiting. I don’t care what guys have done on our team. We’re going to win with guys that love the University of Miami. That has been proven over and over and over again.’’

If a quarterback should transfer, the Canes still have newly arrived 6-4, 204-pound freshman QB Peyton Matocha, out of Houston, Texas, on scholarship; as well as 6-4, 215-pound redshirt junior preferred walk-on Carson Proctor, a junior-college transfer who formerly played at Arkansas as a walk-on and looked very sharp in spring practice. Redshirt sophomore Augie DiBiase from Ponte Vedra is also a walk on, as well as redshirt freshman Ryan Rizk out of American Heritage in Delray Beach.

Those quotes were said in response to a question asked last month – not immediately after naming the starter. Their inclusion in that article is pretty disingenuous imo. Sure it is related in subject matter, but it seems much more inflammatory towards Martel because of the national narrative right now.

If my son was a dominate quarterback, frankly I would advise him to go play at whatever college he really wanted to go to, not the glitziest school that comes calling.

Guys like Carson Wentz, Ben Roetlisberger, Joe Flacco, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jimmy Garoppolo, Josh Allen, Case Keenum and Derek Carr all went to schools that would not be considered premium gigs, and yet they will all be starting on NFL opening day.

If you have talent, they’ll find you. The key is to play and put your talents on display.

I think I’d advise mine to go to the SCHOOL he liked the most and to view the football as nothing more than a tool that allowed him to attend the college he wanted to go to. If he truly was “a dominant quarterback” he would start wherever he went and the NFL would find him. If he wasn’t “dominant”, the NFL would see that too, no matter where he went or whether or not he was the starting qb on his team.

I just watched the first season of QB1 recently and I gotta say… Tate’s family is kind of a shit show. All I saw was a mom who coddled him and a dad with obvious anger issues. But I did feel bad for his sister when those high school boys were heckling her at one of his games. No girl deserves that.

Martel is the poster child for watching what you put out on social media. After his VERY public “don’t swing and miss a second time” comment, it is ironic that he has swung and missed a second time. Maybe he is not as talented as he thought he was, or maybe the other guy just outworked him. Martel may otherwise be a good kid, but he reminds me a lot of Johnny Manziel with his swagger. For his sake I hope that is as far as it goes.

For what’s its worth………….. Number 1 reason kids are not participating in sports is they don’t have the money. Consider the fact that travel baseball, little and senior leagues and the Little league World Series are money makers. But not as expensive as AAU basketball or College football or basketball camps, never mind the cost involved in the 5* camps held in LA, Atlanta, Houston where the kids invited but he lives on the left coast and comes to the Atlanta Nike Opening…..to gain points towards 5dom.
11-13 year old travel baseball uniform, bat, glove entry fees are close to $1,000 per kid not counting snacks, drinks, parents driving from point A to point B, gas, 2 night hotel room each for about 12 weeks. AAU and Football camp even more money.
AAU coaches knock down 6 figure salaries from shoe companies who as we have just seen have bag men assistant colleges coaches have their players dropped on the door steps of Nike and Adidas schools.
Martell like the Ball brothers in LA are just a products of such environmental team and family perceptions of grandeur.
Forgive me because my aging forgetful mind this young mans name left me. A commitment to UGA football, offensive lineman who never has had a FB account, Twitter or Instagram account. Has not done any 5 openings and plays only with his high school team in such preseason scrimmages.
I am way past my prime but in Little League companies in our town sponsored 10 different teams, bought our uniforms, I bought my first Louisville Slugger for $9.99 and a Hank Aaron signature Rawlings glove for $16.97 both of which I still have. Everyone in town played pretty much all 3 sports. Some of us were good some were better but we had a hell of a time. Two guys on my LL baseball team went on to play college football and I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to play small college basketball.
You set the tone for the market place for these kids and college coaches sometimes offer 150 scholarships knowing they can only sign 23-25 or if your in Mississippi 34 kids.
The way we act, the way these kids parents act is just a sign of the demographics of our time. We are separate and anything but equal and please not expect anything from sports or politics to get better before it gets worse

Quote Of The Day

“But outside of that, the biggest advantage you can have is have good leadership, have a veteran football team, and when you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter whether you have spring practice or not. When you don’t have that, it’s tougher, when you don’t have leadership and you don’t have the experience at certain positions.”— Kirby Smart, Dawgs247, 3/31/20